Talk:Half-Blood Prince
This article is not written in a in-universe point of view. -Matoro183 [[User talk:Matoro183|Go Rave'nclaw!']] 18:11, 22 September 2007 (UTC) Sixth year text? I understand where you might gather that this was designated a "Sixth year text". But this is flawed. Yes, Harry and his class were using this text during their sixth year at Hogwarts, but that DOES NOT mean that Professor Snape and his class had to have been using it as their sixth year text as well. With any change of professors (in this case from Slughorn to Snape, and very possibly someone else in-between), the classroom text is - of course - going to change. Even while there is one professor teaching the same course over a span of years, the text will sometimes change either due to a newer edition, or finding another text that you like better. Keep in mind that while Snape and his class were using this book, Slughorn was their Potions Master. Snape clearly, after having been appointed to the post, chose other literature to teach from. It was only in Harry's sixth year, when Slughorn was reappointed to the position, that the text was changed back. So, what we gather from the sixth book is this: This text was obviously liked very highly by Slughorn, and he used it as his potions text during his tenure as Postions Master, and returned to it when he was reappointed to that position in Harry's sixth year. However, because Snape frequently changed potions ingredients and often wrote in the book to improve most potions or invent spells, it is clear that he did not like it as much and is never mentioned of teaching from it. There is no indication, what-so-ever, that Snape HAD to have been in his sixth year while using this book. Quite the opposite, it is clear that they were in their fifth year. Is it not possible that Slughorn taught from this text for all of his classes? Maybe even from first year to seventh? Is it not possible that maybe Slughorn went at a quicker pace in his teaching than did Snape? We don't know. Whoever wrote this article needs to consider all the possibilities, and not be so quick to put their own thoughts and commentaries in an informative encyclopedia page. --'Professor Weasley' Maybe a more proper term would be N.E.W.T. Level Textbook -Matoro183 [[User talk:Matoro183|Go Rave'nclaw!']] 14:03, 6 November 2007 (UTC) :No, the facts are that in Harry's time it is a 6th year text. No one says explicitly what book might have been used by Slughorn 20 years earlier, but it is exactly the same person doing the teaching. There is nothing to say it was not being used 20 years earlier. It was definitely being used for something 20 years earlier. I don't see it making any kind of sense that a junior textbook of 20 years ago would suddenly become a senior level textbook. Perhaps the other way about, but progress generally means that more difficult texts are introduced, not easier ones. How is it clear that Snape was using it in his 5th year? I see no evidence anywhere for that suggestion. Sandpiper 00:42, 24 January 2008 (UTC) ::I think the assumption rises from the fact that the book contains the instructions for Levicorpus, which we then see James use on Severus during Snape's Worst Memory, set in the Fifth year. Lupin said it had become something of a fad at one point. Of course, it may be that Snape, with his interest in potions, had the book for the entire time he was at Hogwarts in preparation for his OWLs/NEWTS. - [[User:Cavalier One|'Cavalier One']](''Wizarding Wireless Network'') 08:07, 24 January 2008 (UTC)